SPA Modeler

speedgraflex wrote:Thank you, Clint. Thank you, Carlos. If you have photos or a link I would like to see your model.

Bruce, if you’re referring to my B-26 build, here is the WIP thread from 2014.

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/viewtop ... f=20&t=195

John, Thanks so much for your advice. I was concerned that the Milliput was not curing, so I dug out the first attempts just to be careful. I kept the small pea sized amount I use as a tester which eventually did harden. Whew. The photo I posted is the redo. I was tired and my description was not very clear. The shallow fills are more nerve wracking to me than deeper grooves.

Tonight I will polish these up then add a thin layer of CA. The plastic surface of this model is very shiny.

Thanks for the link, Carlos. It is always a pleasure to follow along with your work! Nice work filling this fuselage gap!


B-26 by Carlos

Thank you Bruce. That was a project that presented numerous challenges along the way. It’s interesting in that some of these new tool limited run kits present similar challenges as older kits with their fit issues.

Carlos, That was insightful. Most reviews or builds start with either critique or complaint of missing locator pins. With every old kit I attempt (Hasegawa, Hawk, Monogram and Frog), removing the locator pins is one of the pathways to finding the best fit. So not to have these pins to cut off is a blessing for me. My only real fit issues are in the “saddle” of the fuse where the wing spar would be. I saw Kari add strip styrene inside “his” wings of his Do 17 and I thought, “That might work.”


Dornier Do 17 by Kari

This cold weather is not something I am enjoying, especially as I get older. Brrrr...

Another consideration when using Milliput or any 2-part epoxy is to get equal amounts and to mix thoroughly. The two ingredients in Milliput White are slightly different in color so it is pretty easy to gauge when to stop mixing... when the putty is uniformly a single color without striations. You probably know all of this already but I thought I'd mention it for the benefit of others.

I'm eager to see you get to the next step, Bruce. I hope you don't mind my encouragement (nagging?) to get the cockpit and engine painted and work towards buttoning up the fuselage halves. I'm sensing that you need a gentle push...

Yes. You know me well, John. By now, anyone with sense and decorum would have glued and painted something. This is akin to making marks on blank paper or to go to the most extreme situation, what James Cameron said, “I’ve dived on the Titanic, done high altitude jumps, but nothing scares me as much as a blank page when I’m trying to write.” I know how precisely you focus when you work, and others here have that quality, too. I need to make the marks, scribbles, etc. Part of what I just wrote makes sense: addressing fear, basically.

Bruce my man, pulling the trigger feels good. I’m scared of masking and painting canopies, I think I’ll blow it at any moment. But boy did it feel good to successfully mask that canopy today. Oh man. You’ve most assuredly got this. You can totally do this!

It's just a speed bump along the way. You just need to drive over it. For me, model building is a process. It has its ups and downs but an important part of the process is the progression or moving from one step to another.

It's like an axe. You're stuck on sharpening it. You notice a nick here, a dull spot there. It'll never be sharp enough to satisfy you. What you don't realize is that it is plenty sharp enough to cut down a tree. And until you cut that tree down, you'll always be thinking you have a dull axe.

jkim wrote:It's just a speed bump along the way. You just need to drive over it. For me, model building is a process. It has its ups and downs but an important part of the process is the progression or moving from one step to another.

It's like an axe. You're stuck on sharpening it. You notice a nick here, a dull spot there. It'll never be sharp enough to satisfy you. What you don't realize is that it is plenty sharp enough to cut down a tree. And until you cut that tree down, you'll always be thinking you have a dull axe.

That was beautifully said, er- TYPED, John.

Indeed! Wisdom! Thank you so much, John!